


Big Eyes Small Mouth

by cockabeetle, Crazy_luna



Series: Owari Magica [73]
Category: Owari Magica
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:28:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26786728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cockabeetle/pseuds/cockabeetle, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crazy_luna/pseuds/Crazy_luna
Summary: They have a conversation about the current magi situation ""Magical Girl Dungeons and Dragons""
Series: Owari Magica [73]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1815574





	Big Eyes Small Mouth

**Author's Note:**

> POINTS  
> Total: 2607  
> Beetle/Ana: 1543 words at 775 +750 +50 = 1575pts  
> Bun/Thea: 1064 words at 535 +500 = 1035pts

Mariana found herself needing to get out of the apartment and _think_ while she wandered. She's been waiting for Percy's signal that he's ready to confront Belladona, and... she's still trying to decide how she'll approach that conversation. Her growing frustrations with how things are currently is in... near direct opposition with her opinion on Bella, and it's hard to know what she even wants to get out of this. Sure... she knows she wants an end to the fighting and the distrust and the destruction of Salem's life, but... outside of that? Who can say...  
She's so lost in thought, chewing on the end up one of the longer bits of hair she has left, that she doesn't pay any attention to what she's doing or where she's going. She isn't even fully aware she's in the Park again.  
  
Thea hadn't been in the town for long, but "confused girls running into her" didn't seem normal. She raises her eyebrows at the brunette- sandy blonde?- in her way, bag slung over one shoulder and skateboard tucked under the other arm. "Sorry lady." She flashed a smile. "Wrong turn."  
  
Mariana squeaks, and flushes a little in mortification.   
"Oh my gosh, I'm sorry! I wasn't looking where I was going--!" She hides her face in her hands and whines a little, scrubbing her fingers through her fringe.  
"I just got so worked up about- uh." She paused, unsure how to even... try to finish that sentence without sounding crazy or accidentally revealing something. Think, Mariana!  
  
Thea stared at the shorter girl. She seemed so stressed... well, as a queen had once said, what the hell. She shifted and blew out a breath. "I've got some time to kill and thoughts I don't wanna think. Wanna sit and talk about it or something?" She raised her eyebrows. Anything was better than dead-dad boulevard.  
  
Ana bit her lip, glancing to the side to think it over. Bouncing this decision off of someone else would _significantly_ ease her stress about it. She's avoided talking to anyone else before now because she didn't think their perspectives would actually help, since she knows about what most everyone else would say. A truly neutral party was ideal, for this. But... how does she word it? She sighs, shoulders sagging as she tries to come up with a believable explanation.   
"Why not? Thinking about it myself hasn't gotten me anywhere this week." Could she play it off as a game? Something specific to her friend group...  
  
That was... easier than she thought it would be. Thea was way too used to vapid west coast girls. She adjusted her grip on her bag again, nodding, trying to remind herself that she was one of them too.  
  
Vapid west coast girl. Just another girl. Not one who was panicking and pissed at the world. Not one who was knee-deep in her own mistakes. "Second pairs of ears always help. C'mon, princess. Let's go." She nudges her with her shoulder, leading her to one of the picnic tables so they can actually sit down in the shade. Thea wasn't the "standing around" type.  
  
Ana giggled, and followed the taller girl, deciding to go with a 'homebrewed DnD game' as her explanation.   
"Are you... familiar with like, Dungeons and Dragons? And games like it?" She twists her ring around her finger, ignoring how it felt against her scar.  
  
Thea shrugged as she set her bag to her side and the skateboard on the ground next to her feet. "Not super, but I know the basics. Dated a guy who was into it."  
  
Ana nodded.  
"My friends have this game using the basic tabletop model- dice, character sheets, etcetera- but based on like... magical girl anime?" Ana twisted her ring again.  
"The story's gotten really complicated, and I've been having trouble deciding what I should do, next session."  
  
"Oh, like _BESM_." Thea nodded. She remembered the game- the 10th grade boyfriend who watched too many isekai anime was into it. She saw the appeal, but in a 'appeal to not spend alone time with him' kinda way. She folds her hands together and rests her chin on it. "Are you the DM or are you like, just a player with some irons in the fire? Either way: cool."  
  
"Player. I've been playing long enough to be like... on the council for where the story goes next, though. We've got an in-story hierarchy of like... kids who just started, characters who've been doing this awhile, and big kids. My girlfriend, the DM, and my best friend are the 'big kids'. The DM's sister's ex started playing last April, as like... a secondary antagonist to oppose both our own characters and the monsters we fight, it's almost cool, except she's been kind of an asshole about it." Ana runs her other hand through her hair.  
"Bella- the antagonist- sent 'letters' with threats and stuff to everyone's players, and a couple of sessions ago she cut off the DM's character's arm off during a fight. And just last session, she got one of the new kids to trash Salem's shop- the DM's sister runs an item shop ingame, it's intricate as hell- and now I'm supposed to like... confront Bella with my best friend next session. And I just. I don't know where I should go- because on the one hand, I am so tired of her edgy bullshit and how much she's put a wedge into the group, but on the other... aside from Salem and Von- the DM- I just... don't like most of the group? It's exhausting."  
  
Thea felt more connected to the girl than she had expected to. Upon hearing 'DND rant' she thought it would be like, relationship drama or someone's orc this someone pissed into that, but this? This was something she understood. She nodded. "Yeah, I get it. People suck and it's hard to vibe with them when they're just doing what they want. And it's a team effort, so you can't just say 'no, that one's doing it wrong' without people losing their shit and rolling for initiative to punch you out. I get it! It sounds like she's really being a creep. The letters, the arm thing, the shop thing, it sounds edgy and annoying and over the top. Why not just hit her up outside the game first? Or like- tell her 'hey, if you don't back down, i'll cut your arm off.' Because there's no excuse for being a brat." She leaned back. "And if you're supposed to be having fun, then they can't take it from you. You deserve better."  
  
"Yeah. We're supposed to be vicariously living it up as sailor moon knockoffs, not staging world war lace." Translating the magical girl stuff into a game setting worked pretty well, she was surprised. She'd been expecting for it to come off as stilted and obviously a lie, huh.  
"Like... there's more stuff to my issues, too- my best friend's character is accidentally in love with 3 others. My little brother's, this new kid who just moved into BFF's house ingame, and Bella. But his character is also still on Von's side, he just... doesn't want to see us all fighting, and he'd really rather we not kill each other." She lets out another long breath.  
"And Vanessa- my girlfriend, we started dating IRL after the session with Von's arm, but I've had a crush on her since we started this dumb game if I'm honest- has been getting squirrely, she and Bella are the only two characters who can heal, and Ness had her character practice on herself near the beginning to 'get better' but she refuses to heal herself during battles and keeps getting knocked out or having to leave early. And she threatened Percy- my best friend- when he wanted to talk to Bella about the shop, because he didn't think she'd actually do it. Bella still likes Salem, ingame, and the shop's on the beach and is hard to access with a prosthetic leg, among other reasons. Ness kept baiting Percy and still hasn't apologized and she ignores most of what my character says during sessions, unless Von steps in to acknowledge me. And I just. On the one hand, the only reason my character is fine with fighting other magi now is because Bella is such an ass she made me switch alignments from lawful to neutral good, just from how much mine hates her. On the other, the group... doesn't seem like it's meant to last. Ness is angling for something, Von's got everything set up to go to Percy, Ness and I when her character dies, the new kids don't know what they're doing, Avril hasn't shown up to a session since Bella first showed up, and Ophelia has been acting off so much that I'd almost suspect she was working with Bella if I didn't know better."  
  
Thea took a minute to process everything, then reached into her bag to pull out a notepad and a pen. "Do you mind if I..." She wrote down a few names with key descriptors.  
`'Vanessa- GF. causing problems. unknown goals  
Percy- BFF. can't we all just get along? u don't even go here. dating sim.  
Von- lost arm? profit? wants to die?  
Bella- big problem. antagonist. edgy goth girl.  
New kids- idk  
Salem- has a shop in the sand  
leg- came up somewhere? idr  
Avril- not here  
Ophelia- maybe working with edgy goth girl but we don't know, probably not'`  
  
She turned the paper around to show Ana. "How does looking at it on paper feel? Any other grievances?" She offered the pen. "There's plenty of space, girl, write em down."  
  
Mariana huffed, and took the paper, adding herself to the top.  
`'Mariana - I just wanted to be sailor moon, guys'`  
She thinks a moment, then adds a `'prosthetic leg'` and `'horny nurse kink'` to Bella.   
She also adds Luis to the bottom, tapping the pin to her cheek in thought.  
`'Luis - lil bro, gay, helps Percy cause problems'`  
  
She sighs.   
"It does kinda help, because if it's all out here, then it's not all jumbled up in here," she taps the side or her head with the pen, "but... I just don't know what I should do. Because... I don't think fighting or killing Bella will solve anything, but she's done enough shit to make me want to deck her."  
  
"Murder is an option? Shit." Thea shook her head. "Never an option. That's the kind of stuff not even DMs should consider. Having to start from scratch with a new character, that's the worst kind of pain. But... nothing saying you can't deck her. Or, you know, use her. She sounds like a manipulative creep, why not manipulate her back? If everyone has their own agenda and is ignoring you, then say screw it. Pick and choose, give her bread crumbs. Either you beat her at her game or you've atleast confused the hell out of hers. I bet she doesn't even know what to do when people do something unexpected."  
  
"If I do try and manipulate her... what would I even do? I can't really use leverage about Percy since he'll be there with me, and... I don't know what I'd want. I mean... Percy made a deal with Bella, early on, so that she wouldn't target my character." Ana paused.  
"In game, there's this mechanic around intense negative emotions and magic use, that makes your magic trinket 'darken'. If it gets too dark, your character 'falls', and her soul gets corrupted into a monster with powers based on her wish and her fighting style. Most monsters we fight weren't player characters, but... for a while there, mine was edging close to becoming the first one." She sighs.  
"Really edgy, early 2000s stuff, I know, but Von's been wanting to play this game a while. And... it is an interesting mechanic, even if it's hard sometimes to deal with that. Bella's goal is to corrupt us all into monsters, who she can then fight and use to prolong her own life, since the corrupted gems are used to purify your own ingame. On paper, it makes sense and I get it. In practice... creating ghosts is still murder, even if you're gonna use them to stave off your own death."  
  
Thea nodded. "That sounds kind of killer. Like, cool. Like siiiick." She snagged the pen to add under Von's section-  
`'Von- genius'`  
She passed the pen back and surveyed the list. "Well... Do you know everyone involved? Like, do you have all the pieces of this? If you know something she doesn't, you could get the tide back. Or, figure out what she knows that you don't. She's gotten the upperhand through sneaking and lying and stuff, right? There's got to be some kind of like- of stuff that's fueling her. She's not doing it alone."  
  
Ana thought for a moment.  
"I know part of it is she's willing to talk to the NPCs that gave us our magic. They're these little cat aliens that'll answer your questions if you ask, but they won't offer information unless you already know it. Like... they won't tell you about the whole turning-into-monsters thing unless someone else already told you, or you ask the right question. But they'll warn you not to let your gem get dark. They know where all of us live, and what our wishes were, and like... basic info about each character. So Bella has that. As of now, everyone but the newest kid, Aeron, knows about the gems and stuff. Aeron trashed Salem's shop for Bella. I don't... know for certain, technically, but... I know it here." She tapped her chest.  
"They weren't at the most recent session, and they're the only one who didn't know the significance of the place, or what a lot of the items do. They aren't close to anyone, and Von made sure we all knew the place had blue magic left around. Aeron's the only one who picked blue as their main color."  
  
Thea nodded again. "Okay.. So easy question, why not just use the incubator? Ask the NPCs about Bella. About where she came from, what her wish was, where she lives, stuff like that. Then during that meeting, buh-bam, the table is even! Nobody's got any secrets!" She nodded. "And talk to the blue kid. Whoever. That one knows something probably."  
  
Ana nodded.  
"That did occur to me, I figured out that was her main way of knowing stuff about us, but I'm also just... it's hard to want to talk to those little rats. They let me wish for candy. My character is doomed to become some eldritch horror monster because she couldn't think of a better wish than random sweets." Ana runs a hand down her face.   
"Every time I think about those things I wish I could shoot them. I told Von I would, if I ran into them during a session." She sighs.  
"But I can try. I do need to talk to Aeron, but I promised to let Percy confront them first, so... I'm not gonna begrudge him that. I... do you think... I could convince her to let us work together on defeating witches? Make it clear she has no real upper hand, even with her trashing the shop and threatening everyone but Percy, me, and either Ophelia or Chara." Ana twisted her ring again.  
"Ophelia's gem is in a star shape, we each have a specific shape we chose. Chara, a new kid, also picked a star. Other than that they're different enough designs, but the threat was just a shape with the witch seed in it, so it's hard to tell who it was supposed to be."  
  
"Well, do you think she got to the other kid- Chara? Because new kids are always easy to get to. But you said the other one doesn't talk much, right? So," Thea shrugged. "Who's to say, really, with that one. I don't know the right answer. You just have to be careful. But! You can probably convince her. Sounds like there's enough monsters, she doesn't need the group to survive. She's probably just being an antagonist because sometimes going crazy is fun, right?"  
  
"Ingame, she's still bitter about the fight she and Von got into over Salem. She's prodding at us to get back at Von, mostly. But... if enough of us are on her side, maybe she'll stop poking the bear and actually become a real girl. A friend, or at least like... not an enemy."  
  
Thea hummed. "Sometimes the only way to beat an enemy is to make a friend. Or, uh, some gooey shit like that." She flashed a smile. "How about that? Do you feel less worked up?"  
  
"Yeah. Thanks, I didn't realize how bad I needed to talk to someone about this stuff..." Ana laughs.  
"I never introduced myself, I'm Mariana." She offers her hand to the other girl.  
  
Thea took her hand and shook it. "Thea. I'm not a big fan of dnd, but if you're ever going crazy or need to talk to someone, let me know, okay? I'm new to- uh, what's the town called again?" She leaned forwards. "I'm not like, stupid I just don't remember."  
  
Mariana laughed.  
"Seaford. Honestly... I'm not a big fan of DnD either, I just... wanted to make Von happy." She shakes her head.  
"Thanks for listening, I'm sorry I just babbled for like 20 minutes."  
  
Thea stood, kicking her skateboard up. "It's fine. I'll see you around, right?" She raised her eyebrows.  
  
"Hopefully! This place is pretty big, but I'll keep an eye out." Ana grinned.


End file.
